MOVIE REVIEW:
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Review By:
G.P. Manalo
Directed By:
Martin Scorsese
Starring:
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jonah Hill
Margot Robbie
The Wolf of Wall Street is one of those films that
after realizing that this is “based on a true story” you are pretty much
bewildered by the fact that these very ludicrous situations have happened in
real life, much like Argo back in 2012 except Argo didn’t have any sex and
drug-crazed maniacs walking around like Christian Bale and his gang in American
Psycho. Director, Martin Scorsese, gives an outrageously energetic and almost light-hearted
feel to the memoirs of a crooked-silver tongued devil stock broker, Jordan
Belfort. By the way, I am not kidding when I say that this movie is
“Outrageous”.
THE
WOLF OF WALL STREET tells the memoirs of the wolf himself, Jordan
Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), entering
the classy yet profane lifestyle as a stock broker in Wall Street. But when the
brokerage has come to a close, he moved on to Penny stocks for him to work back
up to the top again and there he assembled his own crew of penny stock brokers.
He trains them to work like he does for them to achieve greater and live the
life like he do. With his crew he started, Stratton Oakmont an “over the
counter” brokerage house where they sell small businesses to wealthy business
people. Despite his “accomplishments”, his doings have given away some unwanted
attention to the FBI and zaniness ensues.
The film has a lot to say about corrupt stock
brokers in Wall Street, though we did had Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Ben
Younger’s Boiler Room in the past. But in this film it does follow through that
template but the only thing that differs from both of those movies is that they
show you the corruption in detail, from them having this sort of biblical code
into tricking people to the things they can do with all that money (you’ll be
surprised). People have argued that the flaw of this movie is that it (which
condescended the statement that I have just said) just says “fuck explanations
about tricking people in the market, look at Leonardo DiCaprio doing lewd”.
Scorsese does look like he is celebrating the worst behaviour of a terribly
despicable person, (Granted it is not his first time if you have seen
Goodfellas and Casino) but it is really not. The movie is self-aware that the
audience don’t really care about how illegal the things they do (in specific
details) and instead tells a message to the audience that we can be (or at least
we already are) money-hungry people, the film shows the potential dark side of
people and how much money can be a sickness as it transforms us into people
like Jordan Belfort, a man who has no conscience at all.
Scorsese breathes life into almost everything he
does. Hell, it feels like he can tackle every film genre at this point. For a 3
½ hour film, I was never bored or checking my watch every 5 minutes because of
the amount of energy it added, each scene feels either important or
energetically hilarious. The movie could’ve been like the last act of the film
which the tone pretty much shifts into a very serious drama, but instead
Scorsese literally didn’t take the subject seriously – in a good way, and it is
very rare to have that. Scorsese takes a despicable person like Belfort to have
this engaging yet intriguing movie not to mention making a total douche like
Jordan Belfort be likable but not exactly rootable (like Tony Stark in Iron Man
2 or Tony Montana in Scarface). The weird part about it was that it makes an
entertaining movie, making the performances or everything else be “over the top”
makes this movie likable than it is meant out to be (a 3 ½ hour movie of hating
a total douche). This film is very much classic Scorsese as it is nuanced of
both his past works like Casino and Goodfellas, both of which is celebrating
the worst behaviour known to man.
The movie was scene after scene of comedy gold,
but it lasted for about two acts of a 3 ½ hour film and the performances felt
like exaggerated caricatures in most scenes. One could argue that this is a
very gratuitous movie. The film is obscenely gratuitous (we’re talking orgies,
drug adventures, full frontal nudes, etc.), right from scene 2 Margot Robbie
was giving Leonardo DiCaprio a blowjob inside a car (and a couple of scenes
later he was doing blow in a girl’s ass). Critics were very much slamming this
movie for the gratuitous amount of obscenity, but to me the amount of obscenity
is consistent enough to the message of the film. Unlike most comedies who are
just being obscene for the sake of being obscene for a cheap laugh (*cough* 21
and Over).
I love it when DiCaprio takes on roles that is
opposite of what people think of him which is pretty much a love-struck
teenager 16 years ago, I like seeing him in roles like Howard Huges in “The Aviator” or Billy Costigan Jr. in “The Departed” but most of all him in “Django Unchained” as Calvin Candie, this
is definitely his best role yet and his best contribution with Martin
Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers
great showmanship and he is simply electrifying in this role. From the first 2 acts
of the film, everything he says and does is comedy gold but when things go
serious he reminds me a lot of him as Howard Hughes back in The Aviator but him
being in a comedy was very much “out there”. He proves that he can be a
versatile performer in this movie, him starring in a black comedy is very new
to him and he does have very good comedic chops in this film. His performance
adds so much to the zany environment of the film.
Saying that DiCaprio is in the level of being a show stealer, but really
everyone in this movie was fantastic too. Jonah Hill as the Wolf’s right hand
man, Donny Azoff also delivers the same fun Leo did; his role in this film
continues to show that he is a versatile performer like Leo. And like him, his
role in this film and his previous academy award nominated role in Moneyball,
he does tether away from what people believe his role really is which is him
being the fat and obnoxious kid in Superbad. Another great performance was
Matthew McConaughey, despite the fact that he was only there for the first 10
minutes he did have a great intro (he got me doing the Lunch Table chest
bump-humming after seeing this), unfortunately the trailers did gave away all
the best things about his character in the film. There were also a couple of
actors I’d like to name in this movie that felt like they were taken out of
obscurity like Jean Dujardin and Rob Reiner, both were also hilarious in their
roles. Last but not the least is Margot
Robbie, who is probably the best looking woman I have ever seen in cinema today
(if you thought that Megan Fox is a goddess, you haven’t seen anything yet). It
is very rare to have a super-model like woman like her to actually give a great
and non-cringe worthy performance like she did in this movie.
In the end, The Wolf of Wall Street is the most
entertaining film of the year and we have barely made it out of January. Martin
Scorsese continues to prove that he is the best directors of all time and why
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill are the greatest actors in the business right
now. The film is oddly enough entertainingly hilarious from start to finish as
it is a 3 ½ celebration of terrible behaviour. The film is packed with laughs
and brilliant yet Oscar-worthy performances to the screen. I can’t really
recommend this to everyone because the movie is definitely not for everyone,
and by everyone I mean people who have a religious background or at least for
people who found films like Psycho, Goodfellas, Scarface, The Godfather, and
Pulp Fiction be “too much”. I did forget to say earlier that I have blindly
watched this movie and it does add a lot to the experience.
THE GOOD:
+ HILARIOUS FROM START TO FINISH
+WELL PACED
+COMEDIC TIMING
+EXCELLENT PERFORMANCES
+ DELIVERS A GOOD HIDDEN MESSAGE
THE BAD:
-NOPE!
MY RATING:
EPIC WIN! - 5/5
